MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

VISION STATEMENT

The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.

OBJECTIVES

The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution — the principal objectives of the Association shall be:

To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens

To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States

To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes

To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights

To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination

To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.

The NAACP and the next 100 Years

The NAACP is a members organization, and can be no MORE successful than its members make it. We have a long and honorable tradition of social justice in this country sending forth the clarion message that when we act together we can overcome.

It has been said that if the NAACP were a single individual, she would be in her sunset years. A person who had filled a lifetime with the experience of the NAACP would now face the challenges of an aging body invested with the kind of wisdom that never grows old. The NAACP is instead, an institution that has, in a comparatively brief span, been a reliable conscience of the nation as well as its fighting spirit. Alongside the world’s ancient civilizations, the NAACP is just a baby. Youthful vigor continues to fuel its ideas, and speaking truth to power remains its mission.

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Three of the Founders of the NAACP

Mary Church Terrell

Ida B. Wells

W. E. B. Du Bois

NAACP Founding

The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and the resting place of Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was committed against Blacks, some 60 people called for a meeting to discuss racial justice. The result of this meeting was the formation of the NAACP.